Inner State Gallery Presents Inertia
Featuring New Works From Dave “Persue” Ross, Kwest & Jarus
Opening July 15th, Inner State Gallery is proud to present Inertia featuring new works from Dave “Persue” Ross, Kwest and Jarus. Highlighting entirely new bodies of work from three artists that are perpetually in motion, Inertia showcases each artist’s tirelessly crafted styles, honed on the streets and refined in the gallery for this unique show. Operating seamlessly both individually as well as an unstoppable trio, each artist drives forward to what promises to be an unforgettable exhibition.
In his latest body of work San Diego artist Persue provides a wide range of dreamscapes to enter and explore. Using his signature characters as guides through an illustrated, cartoon-like world, Persue also experiments with abstraction, playing with composition and use of color with childlike freedom.
“With these pieces I wanted viewers to probe the space and float aimlessly within it, falling or flying like many of my characters do. In some works, the dreamscapes are absent of characters, but I would like the audience to dive in and explore the chaos or calmness of these abstract compositions allowing the work to draw a response from deep within the viewer,” Persue said.
Drawing from within himself, Toronto’s Kwest delves deep into an entirely new cohesive body of work, which finds the mixed media artist challenging himself with new techniques and applications combining his two parallel worlds. Meticulously crafted over the past two decades, these sculptural works flow fluidly between evolving outdoor public installations and cleanly refined 3D gallery works.
“To create a sculptural assemblage in the studio and then take it into a public environment to paint answered my constant pursuit to challenge myself, and the work I produce. This work truly captures that action, the creative state I enter in both genres, and the unique stories evolved as each set is produced. Through the production of each series, two different pieces are produced, one on the surface of the work and one on the background it was painted on. This also simultaneously provides two arenas of viewing, one with an undetermined course of momentum in the public, and the other a purposeful display in gallery. The inertia in these actions displays both states of definition,” Kwest says of his latest body of work.
Finding Inertia through the graffiti covered trains in remote Saskatchewan, fellow Canadian Jarus presents his debut solo exhibition. Showcasing a masterful blend of charcoal, spray paint, pastels and acrylic, the prolific freight muralist and graffiti writer finds himself juxtaposing his arresting portraits of both people and freights effortlessly, regardless of the medium.
“Many of my subjects are people that I have met on my journey painting around the world, true forces of inertia, both of us moving together on momentum alone. I feel each portrait in this series is visually unique, but each subject is equally relatable as I capture each portrait as viscerally and honestly as I can, while staying true to the emotion created by these unique people and our interactions,” Jarus said while working at Inner State Gallery’s Artist In Residency studio.
Please join us for our opening artist reception from 7-10pm as we welcome all three artists in attendance. This event is free and open to the public.
To join the advanced collector’s preview email info@innerstategallery.com or call (313) 744-6505.
About Dave “Persue” Ross: Descended from a line of acclaimed artists, Dave "Persue" Ross continues family tradition and is recognized by his peers as a true artistic pioneer. With an energetic, illustrative style, his technical ability and poise as a young artist in the 1980's quickly earned him the respect of his contemporaries throughout the world. Dave Persue shifted his focus from commercial work to his own projects and relocated to New York City in 2014 where he is now based. His background as a designer and muralist has provided for him a solid foundation upon which he produces his latest works.
About Kwest: Kwest was born and raised in Toronto, Canada starting his art career as a graffiti artist in the early 1990s. For over twenty years he has been active in developing a unique and complex style of lettering that he can call his own, a fluid and tight mechanical typography that appears to be born of the very structures he chose to paint them on. It is thru his solitary practice of working rapidly in an outdoor environment that Kwest has fine-tuned his visual language and similarly gained recognition and respect internationally.
The thirst for creating the next masterpiece and for the action of painting has pushed him to create sanctioned works on the streets as well. The shift to prioritize painting on walls has transformed his style into one of organic and abstract forms sometimes revealing letters and other times camouflaging them to the point of abstraction. He is known for painting the most complex and largest graffiti art in Canada thus setting him apart from all of the others working in the streets.
Kwest is a key pioneer in the fusion of graffiti and sculpture coming to this as a self-taught carpenter, designer and builder. His work is unrivalled as he applies various stone, wood, and metals to create his letters. His approach is innovative and stylistically unparalleled yet his admiration for the origins of graffiti are always evident. Blending his different crafts has allowed him to create a new style of sculpture that is rooted in graffiti as much as it is shaped by his knowledge of building and designing indoor spaces.
Today, his paintings and sculptures demonstrate his ability to create and shape intricate letter formations while breaking conventional rules. His work explores the relationship between animal and nature, letterforms and their disintegration, among other things. Kwest’s work uses a broad range of materials, both traditional and untraditional.
The materiality of the object, in both its elemental composition and modified appearance, and his connection to its origin, is at the heart of Kwest’s work.
About Jarus: Emmanuel Jarus is a Canadian-born artist who travels to paint murals in different communities around the world. Jarus has been trained by different contemporary realist painters throughout his life and briefly studied at the Academy of Realist Art in Toronto. During his time in Toronto he was influenced by graffiti to create public outdoor pieces and murals on a large scale.
From 2011-2016, Jarus traveled to participate in different mural programs and festivals around the world and has permanent and renowned mural productions in major cities as well as small towns and communities. When painting outdoors or inside his studio he uses a combination of different media including acrylic, oil, charcoal, pastel and spray paint.
The inspiration for his artwork comes from the people he meets and the beauty found in his natural environment. His goal is to empower communities through public art as well as convey a unique style of painting to inspire others to look at things in a new way.